Middlebury Street Prayer walk 5/27/8

We are praying and walking up and down the streets of our city. I am posting these reports of what happens on our evenings of street ministry. I bought a Radio Flyer Wagon to pull along behind us as we walk. That is kind of our trademark for people to recognize us by.

Hello All,

I started the walk alone this evening. My two regular companions, Melissa and Terry were both under the weather and had let me know that they would not be making it this evening. When I'd been out for maybe 30 minutes Terry called and told me he would be there in a little bit. He caught up with me down by Saleh's market.

I've been going into the market every chance I get and buying a bottle of water just to have an excuse to talk to the fellow who owns the store and his son and to give them one of our fliers and Bible verse cards. Tonight I gave the owner the flier (his son was not there) and he just started reading it. There were people waiting to make their purchases and he just kept reading and reading it. I was tickled. He was still reading when I walked out the door. That made me smile. Sometimes I wonder. . . I question. . .Sometimes I need a hug from God. He gave me one in that little grocery store.

Terry is a very good friend. He and I minister together three nights a week. Twice on the streets of Elkhart (Tuesdays & Thursdays) and once in the Elkhart County Jail (Wednesdays). He and I, I suppose like good friends always do, we encourage each other when the other is down. Terry was very down at the church picnic. . . I was feeling down tonight. I slept very little last night and I was just feeling a bit low. Terry very much lifted my spirits. It was very good to have him along.

It was very cool and not many people were out. I was really focused on praying to bring down strongholds in the neighborhood. The Bible says that we do not war against people:

Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

I was determined not to allow the lack of many people feel like a defeat to me. No matter the appearances, there can be no defeat when fighting God's fight. . . Prayer is very important to our attempts to win the world for Jesus. . . If I have spiritual eyes to see the effects of prayer against the places of wickedness in the areas where we walk and pray, they will see huge victories that have already been won in the spiritual realm. It may take longer for the victories to manifest themselves in the physical realm, but !!!!! The stage has been set through the foundation laid by prayers of the saints for great moves of God, for great revival and increase of His kingdom!!!

Actually Sister Ruby told me as I was leaving the church, that there would be more people out than I expected and she was right. One lady was waiting for me at her door. She knew who I was. I don't remember ever speaking to her before. She is a little older than me (maybe 60ish). She lives right next to the big church that is for sale. She is having problems in her family. Her mind is troubled and she desired prayer. I anointed her and we prayed for the peace of God to fill her mind, for God to move in a mighty way in her family, for her to have confidence that everything that was happening was going to work out for God's glory, for a hedge of protection to keep the dark one away. . . It was very good. She had tears coming down her cheeks when we finished. . .

I anointed and prayed for Melissa to be healed. She has a bad sinus infection. Her electricity has been cut off and she has food that is going to spoil. I offered to come back after the prayer walk and put her food in the Church's refrigerator. Melissa's uncle and Dan were cooking out, due to the lack of electricity. . .

Lots of kids were out in the low-income apartments. We gave out many Bible verse cards and fliers and talked to quite a number of people.

We saw and talked to Loretta (Tina's daughter) for a little bit. They will be moving this coming weekend to South Bend.

Terry and I always stop at the Penguin Point restaurant toward the end of our walk. We've gotten to know the counter help pretty well. We always give them fliers and Bible verse cards. We are part of their weekly routine. . .

I think through this street ministry in the neighborhood around the church, we are among other things, maybe helping to build a sense of community. We talk with everyone. We give people who don't otherwise know one another something in common to talk about. . .Things are really working very well. . .We see people with fliers all over the place. . .People are waiting for us, for prayer or numbers of people collect our little fliers, several have invited us in and shown us the fliers hanging in their homes with the pretty colored cords and beads that Sister Bowlin and Sister Chaney are putting together. . .

I plan on continuing the two street ministries through the end of October. I just looked and October 31st this year is on a Friday. It might be nice to have some kind of simple neighborhood fellowship/outreach finale on that night kind of wrapping up the prayer walk season. . . a fellowship/thank you for all the people from the church who have participated and an alternative for the neighborhood people to the normal October 31st celebrations. Maybe (weather permitting) we could make home made soup and bread, maybe donuts and hot cider or something like that for free out in the parking lot with Tiki lights or something similar, kind of like a neighborhood prayer walk finale/harvest party on that night. Just some thoughts I'm kicking around. . . reactions?

God is so good. Things are going so very well. . .

Dave Stokely
http://anewcreature.blogspot.com/

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